So in my previous post the basics of web analytics I showed you how the Google Analytics javascript is used to retrieve information about the visitor and the content they are interacting with on your website, then in the follow up post called Google Analytics Cookies and their values I discussed how cookies were used to store persistent data and calculate things like the current visit (also known as a session) and manage campaign data. (more…)

In the previous article I showed you how to view Google Analytics cookies using Chrome Developer tools. You’ll notice first of all that there isn’t 1 cookie used by Google Analytics, and also each of these cookies has a unique name. If you look under the ‘value’ column you can see the actual contents of these cookies. Looking in the expires column you can also see when the browser will automatically delete/remove these cookies from your machine. (more…)

Google Analytics is based on a very simple form of data collection. A tracking pixel, beacon, pixel tracking tag etc.. you may have heard these terms before and these are all interchangeable terms that essentially mean the same thing. (more…)

Its been a little while since I last posted here, mainly because I’ve been busy studying Drupal an excellent open source content management system. I have also been playing with Goals and Filters in Analytics and I’m waiting on some data to build up before I report on that, but for now I thought I would reveal some information on a recent experiment with a tool called Hittail.

Understanding your website users is an important part of managing any website. You don’t have to be selling online either to benefit from web analytics as I will show in the following article. Understanding goals and funnels and why they are important should be a top priority for anyone who has invested money into a website. Even if its just a hobby site. (more…)

Web User Stats in Ireland For March 2008

Recently on the Irish web master forums there was a question regarding web browser usage in Ireland. After having looked for data and not being able to find much, (except for this article, which is a few years old) I decided to share some data provided by some major Irish websites. You could assume that other markets will provide this information, however as we will see different markets can vary greatly. (more…)

You have worked hard to establish your business, you know that hiring the right people is important but at the same time you sometimes need to outsource certain elements of your business because everyone else is just too busy to handle more work! You have heard a lot of hype about online marketing , but its all a bit murky. How do I avoid the snake oil salesmen of the industry and how do I know what’s best for my business? (more…)

For those returning to the site, first of all I thank you . Secondly you will probably have noticed a new design. If you can’t see it maybe you need to try a hard refresh in your browser. Just use shift+F5 and you should be ok. Anyway to give a run down on the redesign I put together a quick post.(more…)

Not too long ago, I used to use phpbb a open source bulletin board software system. At that stage it was in the 2.XX version stages and to modify it required manually inserting lines of code at the right point in the right .php file. It was painful when updates would happen because that meant reviewing the code changes you made and making sure it didn’t conflict with updates.